This promotional film is presented by BBC Tomorrow’s World presenter and engineer Kate Bellingham. Kate presents the story of the microchips produced by Siemens at their new Wallsend factory. The film looks at how and where these new microchips are used and how they are produced in the factory. The tape also includes footage of a visit by trainees at Wallsend to Siemens parent factory in Germany. Title: Siemens An animated sequence follows showing a circular ‘wafer’ of new microchips...

This promotional film is presented by BBC Tomorrow’s World presenter and engineer Kate Bellingham. Kate presents the story of the microchips produced by Siemens at their new Wallsend factory. The film looks at how and where these new microchips are used and how they are produced in the factory. The tape also includes footage of a visit by trainees at Wallsend to Siemens parent factory in Germany. Title: Siemens An animated sequence follows showing a circular ‘wafer’ of new microchips flying through space with stars and planets in the background, as it slowly approaches Earth. A commentary from a ‘monitoring station’ warns of this mysterious flying craft. The warning continues as scanning of the craft reveals that it has has 8 billion components. The film cuts to a panoramic view of Newcastle upon Tyne, from the Gateshead side of the Tyne showing clearly the famous Tyne and High Level bridges. The animation features in this sequence as the shadow of the wafer falls over this view of the city. We then see the wafer flying over All Saints Church in Newcastle’s Lower Pilgrim Street. Then it casts its shadow as it flies over the Tyne Bridge. Dramatic music and a warning that this new technology could take over the world takes the airborne wafer to just off the beach at Tynemouth where it hovers above the sea. On the beach a presenter speaks to the camera saying ‘pure science fiction’ in response to what’s just happened but then goes on to outline why this is not so. Title: Kate Bellingham She says that this new technology is dominating our lives already. From a blanket laid out on the sand she picks up one of the wafer disks to show the true size of this new piece of technology. She explains that these discs are being produced only a few kilometres away at the Siemens factory. Title: Siemens – Tomorrow’s Technology Today Kate Bellingham sits on the blanket with a laptop computer next to her. She shows one of the components which are used in the computer, roughly the size of her thumbnail. She shows the kind of microchip that would be inside this component which sits comfortably on her fingertip. This is the sort of component which is produced on the wafers. The source of silicon used in the making of these microchips is all around her as she picks up a handful of sand. As she walks away from the beach she outlines where you might find silicon chips in everyday items. She gets into her car and explains more about the use of silicon chips, especially in mobiles phones. As it happens the phone in her car rings, and she answers the call. The film the moves on to the new Siemens factory at Wallsend, where a view of the factory known as the wafer fabrication plant looks across an ornamental pond in front of the building. Kate Bellingham stands on a foot bridge over the pond, as she explains that the plant has 1500 employees tasked with the production of silicon chips. The film shows the construction of the new plant, with Kate off camera explaining that building was completed in record time in November 1996 with an investment of 1.1 billion pounds, the largest European inward investment to date. Aerial views show the extent of the plant. The film goes on to show one of the ultra-clean work areas in the plant, where workers wear white full body overalls. The reason for such cleanliness is explained by Kate off camera as the film shows a close-up of one of the wafer discs which carries 400 microchips. Each chip is made up of 20 million components. The tolerances are minute and the film shows the size of grain of sand and a minute particle of make-up against the surface of a microchip emphasising the potential damage dirt and debris may cause. Kate must be correctly dressed before she is allowed into any sensitive work areas. She removes her make – up, jewellery is forbidden and an anti-static track suit is worn under a clean room outfit. She also wears a mask and before she enters the clean room a view in the mirror shows the camera crew similarly dressed. They walk into the clean room, a hundred times cleaner than an operating theatre. Kate says that a special airflow system allows air in through the ceiling then out through special floor tiles. The wafers themselves are kept in an even cleaner environment in specially constructed pods holding several discs. They are moved around the plant on a dedicated monorail system. She places one of the loaded pods into a special machine which places each disc in a piece of equipment without being exposed to the air in the clean room. A camera attached to one of the pods is shown on a journey along the monorail system. The film continues with wafers undergoing 400 different processes, through complex equipment and mostly out of view. A coloured display shows how components can be built into the silicon and given that these components are built at a microscopic level, a process known as photolithography is used to achieve this. Kate goes to the photolithography area which is bathed in yellow light, a safe light similar to one that might be used in old photographic darkrooms. Kate explains the techniques used to produce the silicon components. Title: Production Module 1 – Furnaces A worker puts a pod of wafer discs into a special machine which oxidises or burns away the outer surface of the disc. Title: Production Module 1 – Plasma Etching This cuts into the surface of the wafer. Title: Production Module 1 – Ion Implant The silicon is bombarded with atoms which increases its conductivity. Title: Production Module 1 – Vapour Deposition Adds layers of other materials to the wafer, such as aluminium for the circuitry on the chip. Title: Production Module 1 – Metrology and Inspection Rigorous test and inspection procedures take place at every stage. Off camera Kate says the whole cycle takes about ten weeks. On camera Kate shows where the wafers end up. They are sent off to assembly plants all over the world where the chips will be separated and used eventually in the manufacture of computers and mobile phones. Boxes of wafers are loaded into the back of a van in a dispatch area. Kate joins the driver of the van saying that a whole week’s work from such a sizeable factory easily fits into the back of one standard sized van. The film ends as with the van setting off down the motorway with the airborne microchip wafer seen at the beginning of the film following it. Title: Siemens [Blank] Title: Siemens General views of the construction of the Wallsend factory with music, no commentary. An aerial view of the parent factory in Germany followed by people walking to the entrance. The film shows several workers in the clean room area, which are probably the trainee visitors. Trainees from the Wallsend factory are on a visit to the parent company near Munich. Outside the factory and on screen a young woman talks about the different backgrounds of people who work at Siemens. Another view shows two workers suitably dressed for the clean room looking at a computer screen. The film then shows a young man talking on camera talking about his previous jobs one as floor manager in MacDonalds in Northumberland Street, Newcastle. The young woman before says she worked in a floppy disc factory at Cramlington. Another young woman worked for the Bonus machine company on the Team Valley Industrial Estate. Another young man appreciates the opportunity to work at Siemens given their commitment to invest in people. A brief view shows those interviewed enter through factory security gates. A man on camera talks about the trainees who have come to visit the Siemens plant near Munich in Germany. A view of a snow capped mountains ends this section. Credit: Siemens